I’ve been reading See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar. It’s an awesome motivational book and I highly recommend it. He’s an excellent story teller and uses it to help drive home the lessons. I’ll definitely be reading this book again. There’s far too much information to absorb in a single reading.

One of the tips that he recommends and the one I’m latching on to and implementing in my life is to prepare yourself to have a good day. It’s about creating a positive mental attitude to start your day and make sure you get out of the “right side of the bed”. Here is a quote from the book.

I just got back from a three day seminar on how to build a speaking business. It covered everything from discovering your own personal passions to creating products to augment your topics. The best part of the whole event though was the people. Ever since I started down this path of self-employment, I’ve discovered that these are my kind of people. People with a passion and a purpose. People who are choosing their own destiny. People who don’t accept failure and don’t cry every time they don’t get things handed to them on a silver platter.

How about you? Have you discovered “your kind of people”? Are you associating with people that bring you up, or tear you down? Are they speaking into your life, or are they sucking the life out of you? Personally, I’ve never been happier with any group I’ve ever associated with. I hope you can find people like this to surround yourself with as well.

Have you ever found yourself stuck in a cycle of anticipating the next event in your life? Do you start to think about your upcoming birthday only to start thinking about your upcoming vacation once your birthday actually arrives? I find myself in that situation often. I’m always looking toward the next thing. Always rushing. Always anticipating. Never kicking back and enjoying where I’m at.

Life is meant to be lived right where I’m at. If I don’t learn to break this cycle, I’m going to look back and realize I missed a lot of living. There is so much to enjoy in life. The “daddy come here’s” contain much more importance no matter how many times in a row they occur. I’m trying to learn to stop and look instead of brushing them aside and charging on toward that next thing that I’m just going to ignore anyway. When you really think about it, tomorrow never comes anyway, so why am I rushing toward it at break-neck speed?

Max Lucado does an excellent job of conveying the simple truths of the Gospel in his latest book Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference. The author uses very simple and plain language to give us the why and how of getting back to the original message of Christianity. He uses a very conversational style that is a pleasure to read. He fills it with many personal examples from his and others’ lives as well. This book is a call to action that every Christian needs to read and implement in their lives.

While reading the book, I was reminded of another book I recently read and reviewed The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. Mr. Stearns book is a little more missional minded but does contain much of the same call to action as Max Lucado’s. I greatly enjoyed reading both of these books and am very thankful to BookSneeze.com for providing me with complementary copies to review. It has definitely given me a new perspective on my faith and challenged me to live out my faith in a way that will make a difference in the lives of others that will ultimately outlive my life.

The Boy Who Changed the World by Andy Andrews is a colorful children’s book that talks about the impact even a small action can have on the world. The book is adapted from Andrews’ inspirational book The Butterfly Effect in order to bring it down to a child’s level of understanding. It is graphically and colorfully illustrated by Philip Hurst.

In order to illustrate his point the author tells the story of the development of a hybrid corn seed that has saved the lives of billions from starvation. He traces the events that led up to the development backward through time to the small act of a simple farmer who rescued a small boy from the hands of outlaws and brought him into his own family.

This story does a good job of showing how everything we do can have an impact. Every child needs to learn the lesson that they don’t have to be a president, or CEO, or Military Hero to change to world. They just need to be themselves and do what they can for others.